The present invention relates generally to interactive television and more particularly, to a system that allows the user to select channels by spoken request.
Interactive television promises to allow two-way communication between the viewer and his or her television set. Although the technology is still in its infancy, digital television is expected to greatly enrich the prospects for interactive TV, because the digital technology makes possible a far more efficient use of available channel bandwidth. Through digital technology, broadcasters can pack a significantly larger number of programs into the available bandwidth of the delivery infrastructure (e.g. cable or satellite).
While the new interactive, digital television technology offers a significant number of benefits to both viewers and broadcasters, it is not without problems. The prospect of having 200 or more channels simultaneously available for viewing boggles the mind. Conventional on-screen electronic program guides are likely to prove inadequate in assisting viewers to find programs they are interested in. Interactive digital television demands a more sophisticated system of interaction if the viewers are ever going to be able to fully utilize this rich new resource.
The present invention provides a speech-enabled interactive system through which a user can specify a desired program content through natural language speech. The system extracts both keyword and semantic content from the user""s speech, prompting the user to furnish additional information if the meaning is unclear.
The system then monitors closed caption information on multiple channels simultaneously and switches the active channel tuner or auxiliary tuner to the channel carrying information matching the user""s request. If closed caption information is not available, the system will alternatively employ speech recognition upon the audio signal of the channels being monitored. Once the channel has been switched, the program may be displayed in full screen mode, or in split-screen or picture-in-picture mode, or recorded for later viewing.
The speech recognition system works with a semantic analyzer that is able to discriminate between speech intended to describe program content and speech intended to supply meta-commands to the system. By extracting meaning as well as keywords and phrases from the spoken input, the system will find matching content even when the spoken words do not match the closed caption text verbatim.
For a more complete understanding of the invention, its objects and advantages, refer to the following specification and to the accompanying drawings.